You’ll get $50 if you replaced an iPhone’s battery out of warranty

Did you know that you could get your US$ 50 back if you paid for an iPhone battery replacement that’s not covered by AppleCare? Apple is giving refunds to their mislead loyal customers due to the fiasco brought up by their admission of throttling iPhone speeds.

The company announced that it’s giving refunds to customers who paid full price at an authorized Apple store between January 1, 2017, and December 28, 2017. This brings the replacement price down to US$ 29 from US$ 79, but it still ain’t free of charge.

This is done to give a fair treatment to customers who availed of a battery replacement before the news broke out and Apple admitted to the allegations. They are already offering US$ 29 battery replacements that’ll last until the end of 2018 for anyone who wants to replace their old iPhone batteries.

The refund applies around the world and it’ll be issued through an electronic funds transfer or as a credit on the card that paid for the service. Eligible customers should hear from Apple through email between May 23 and July 27 on how to obtain the refund.

Apple, Samsung sold fewer smartphones in 2018 — report

2018 wasn’t a great year for smartphones in terms of sales, but not every company took a hit last year. According to the latest report by Gartner, the total number of devices sold in 2018 was 408.358 million, a 0.1 percent growth from 407.845 million. The biggest losers are Apple and Samsung, both in Q4 and the whole year.

Apple sold 11.8 percent fewer units during the holiday season compared to the same quarter in 2017. Samsung also sold fewer phones during the last quarter, but the South Korean company still managed to maintain a big gap from competitors.

According to the report, Apple is mostly affected in Greater China since buyers are now delaying their upgrades as they wait for bigger innovations. Alternatives are gaining popularity due to their cheaper prices as well.

While two of the biggest names in the industry suffered loss, Huawei, on the other hand, increase their sales and is now close in taking Apple’s coveted second spot. The Chinese tech giant managed to sell an extra 52 million phones in 2018.

Xiaomi and OPPO also gained a few extra millions of sales during the last quarter of 2018. Interestingly, Xiaomi was able to overtake OPPO the whole year with 7.9 percent market share versus 7.6 percent.

Huawei official confirms P30 Pro’s quad camera setup

In a month, Huawei will finally launch the successful P20 series’ successor — the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro. Given last year’s success, the P30 series has some huge boots to fill. Thankfully, existing rumors are already painting a colorful portrait for us.

As the launch beckons just around the corner, Huawei has officially confirmed the series’ most highlighted rumor — the quad rear camera. Last year, the P20 Pro flaunted an amazing triple rear camera system. This year, leakers and rumor mills have speculated on one more camera. After much speculation throughout the past few months, a Huawei official has suddenly leaked the information himself.

On Chinese social network Weibo, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, posted an incredibly close-up shot of the recent full moon. As is standard with most Chinese smartphones, the photo came with an incriminating watermark.

Image source: Weibo

Strangely, Yu still tried to blur out the phone’s model. Despite the blur, the “Leica Quad Camera” label is blatantly clear. Further, the blur still doesn’t completely hide the starting letter, “P.” Obviously, the P20 series does not have the indicated quad camera setup. Also, the blur isn’t big enough to cover “Mate 20 Pro.” The P30 Pro is the only possible option.

Intentional or not, Yu’s leak is the biggest hype maker for the upcoming launch. If the P30 Pro can shoot moon shots like that, it will likely offer an enjoyable shooting experience. Regardless, the Huawei P30 series is only a month away. Huawei has a lot of momentum going into the launch.

Nokia 6 and 2.1 get updated to Android 9 Pie

HMD Global, the company that creates the new Nokia phones, is keeping their promise to users of the original Nokia 6 and the entry-level Nokia 2.1 by seeding the Android 9 Pie update according to schedule.

Both the Nokia 6 and Nokia 2.1 phones should start getting the sweet update to Google’s latest Android version. Like with any rollout, the process is done gradually; some users might have to wait for a bit to get theirs.

For the Nokia 6, the update weighs around 1.7GB and it also brings the latest February 2019 security patch. This is the phone’s second major version upgrade. It was released in 2017 with Android Nougat and got updated to Android Oreo last year.

Keeping up with our promise of 2 years of Android updates, Nokia 6 (2017) is now officially running on Android 9, Pie 💪! Nokia phones get smarter over time. pic.twitter.com/50aLqColh7

The Nokia 2.1, on the other hand, gets the Android Pie (Go edition) since it’s a phone with 1GB of memory. The lightweight version of Android makes sure that things will run smoothly despite the limited memory and storage capacity.

Based on HMD Global’s schedule, the Nokia 3.1 Plus was supposed to receive Android Pie in January, but it was missed. The Nokia 3.1 and Nokia 5.1 are next in line for the update.